


Quod Erat Demonstrandum

by messier51



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Alcohol, Emotional Conversations, Happy Ending, M/M, Speculation, Universe Alteration, currently canon compliant (as of s4e7)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-11-25 21:27:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18171686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/messier51/pseuds/messier51
Summary: Julia and Quentin deal with the emotional and physical consequences of their choices. Eliot and Q find a little bit of peace in the middle of all of it.Speculative vignette-ish season 4 "possible" ending (that will be jossed because it is not terrible enough).





	Quod Erat Demonstrandum

The last organ that the Monster is missing, he says, was given to Persephone’s son, the Fox.

“Find him,” the Monster says, before disappearing.

Julia lets out the breath she’s holding, and closes her eyes.

“Well fuck.”

 

* * *

 

 

They have a plan, but it’s not a good one. It’s never, really, a good plan, and killing gods hasn’t exactly gone well for them in the past. Julia can barely stand, but she and Quentin set out the organs like the instructions depict. The actual ritual is simple: the Monster activates all of his organs, and then transfers himself from his current host into them. Once he’s possessed his own parts, his magic will do the rest of the body-building. They estimate that they’ll have a few seconds for Julia to set off a spell that only she can do. The only catch? She still hasn’t been able to cast a single spell. All it will take is a little nudge though....

The Monster leers at Quentin as Julia and Penny put the last organs into place.

“You think you did all this just for _Eliot_ , I know, but you really did it for me. You will see he is not fun.”

As the Monster leaves Eliot’s body in a cloud of golden sparkles, Eliot’s body twists unnaturally and falls hard to the ground. Quentin rushes over to where Eliot is lying on the ground, gathering it up in his arms. There’s a pulse, and Eliot’s body is breathing (if shallowly). Quentin’s entire focus is on Eliot dying in his arms, and he doesn’t see the Monster reform his new body, he doesn’t look up until he hears Julia cursing as the Monster gets away.

“This was not fun let’s not ever do it again.”

Julia collapses on the ground next to Quentin and Penny is there to support her. Quentin looks back at Eliot, and all the grief he’s been holding in since he stopped being Brian, since the Monster lied about Eliot’s death, since Eliot had gotten through, it all comes to the surface.

“No no no Eliot where are you? I know you’re alive in there, you told me so. C’mon.” Quentin presses his forehead against Eliot’s and in a voice so thin it almost cracks, says, “I need you back, okay?”

 

* * *

 

 

Eliot suddenly finds himself alone in his memories. Everything around him starts fading, crumbling. Even Charleton is gone. He closes his eyes and focuses on Q and on being brave, and when he opens his eyes the only thing there is his door. _Their_ door. It’s standing in the middle of crumbling nothing, cracked open and too-bright. He steps through it and just like before, the weird sensation of climbing back up into his own body is a trip. This time, though, everything hurts, and he’s lying down. Just like before, the first thing he sees is Q’s face, and he can feel Q’s arms around him. He winces as he smiles and tries to reach up and dry Q’s tears, but he can’t. His arms don’t have the strength.

Instead he says, "I was wrong, I'm sorry I said that."

Q’s voice--his gentle, amazing voice--pitches up with worry. "What? No wait shh shh don’t try to talk, you're dying. We’re going to get you back to, I don’t know. You’re going to be okay." 

Eliot winces again, coughs, and it hurts so much. He wonders if this is a new torture his mind has come up with for him, but he thinks it might be real, because it hurts so much. When he manages to get his voice to come out again it feels like very far away.

“What? No, I can't die now. I have to convince you to spend the rest of your life with me again." It’s the most important thought, the only thing he is holding onto. Be brave enough to love. The thought is funny, because he couldn’t run away now even if he tried.

 

* * *

 

 

Eliot closes his eyes and Quentin hugs him closer. When he looks up, Julia and Penny are watching, quietly, and they look just as exhausted as he feels. The monster is gone and they’re in the middle of nowhere and Eliot is not doing well. But they got Eliot back. It’s something.

Julia shares a look with Penny, and offers him a hand. She grabs Quentin’s hand with her other hand.

One minute they’re on a desolate hill, the next they’re standing in the middle of the Brakebills medical wing, surrounded by students going about their daily activities without worrying about gods and monsters and librarians.

“I know this is dangerous but I couldn’t think of anywhere else that could help him,” Penny says. “Get him onto that bed I’ll go find Lipson.”

Professor Lipson stabilizes Eliot while Quentin stands out of the way helplessly. He knows Julia and Penny are talking to each other, but he’s not sure where Penny’s gone by the time Julia pulls him over to the bed next to Eliot’s.

“You’re about to fall over. At least sit down.”

Quentin just stares at her, hollowly. She shakes her head. She looks as bad as he does, so he listens to her. She sits down next to him and they lean on each other. When Lipson is done setting bones she addresses Quentin and Julia for the first time.

“Okay that’s all I can do. The rest is up to him.” And she walks away.

Eliot looks like he’s sleeping peacefully. Quentin almost believes in it. But he’s breathing, and the machines monitoring him say he’s stable too. Quentin deflates.

“Shit.”

Julia just puts her arm around him and closes her eyes.

They only get a few minutes of quiet before Penny reappears with Margo in tow. She rushes over and checks on Eliot. Quentin gets up and walks over to stand next to Margo, where he has to look more closely at the patchwork of bruises on Eliot’s body.

“Lipson did everything she could, he’s gonna be okay.”

Margo turns to him and if she falls apart, Q doesn’t notice, because he’s already there. They stand next to Eliot’s bed and hold each other, tight, and neither of them have any more words; Eliot is going to survive. They might too.

Everything is still broken, of course. The Library and Irene McAllister will know they’re at Brakebills soon if they don’t already. The monster is in the wind. Fillory is at war. But they have Eliot.

 

* * *

 

 

“I know you didn’t have anywhere better to go, but you have to leave, now. Irene McAllister is on her way and I can give you three to five minutes. Use it wisely.” Dean Fogg’s demands cuts through to each of his weary students and they’re in motion immediately.

“If we take Eliot off campus, the enchantments keeping him alive might not have enough juice to keep going, but it’s dangerous here.”

“Kady’s apartment has better wards.”

“Let’s go to the cottage first,” Quentin says, and they all nod in agreement.

Penny rolls his eyes and holds his hands out. “All aboard.”

The cottage is a little dusty, and full of Poppy’s heat lamps, but it’s as good a place as any with a decent magic supply. Margo won’t leave Eliot’s side, refuses to take her eyes off him, and Quentin finally lets himself curl up in his old bed and fall asleep.

 

* * *

 

Twenty-four hours later and everyone’s on edge, but there’s no sign of enemies. Eliot is still breathing, but hasn’t woken up yet.

Quentin picks a bottle of wine and finds Julia.

“Are you, are you okay?”

“I think I’m good, actually. I think I might be human? I don’t really want to test it though.”

“And that’s what you want?”

“Actually? Yes. The only thing I miss is doing magic.”

“Have you tried?”

“Not since it failed on the hill. Q, I’m sorry I let the Monster get away.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“It’s not yours either you know?”

“Sure.”

Quentin pours them both more wine.

“Okay spill. I’m clearly not what’s bothering you.”

“That’s not true! I’m worried about you.”

“Bullshit, Coldwater.”

Quentin sighs, because it’s stupid. He stares into his glass of wine in silence for a minute. Julia doesn’t get impatient.

"I need advice, I don't want to fuck this up."

Julia almost laughs. "Heh. Are you really sure you want to be talking to me? I’m not exactly the paragon of good life choices over here."

"Jules you’re my _best_ friend; you're literally the only person I _can_ talk to, it seems like."

"Maybe you should try praying to me to get an answer."

"Shut up. Wait, do you think that would work still?"

Julia shrugs. She looks at Quentin, and then in the direction of Eliot’s bedroom in the cottage where Margo’s watching over his hopefully healing sleep.

"Do you like him?"

"Jesus Jules what is this second grade?” Julia just smiles in response, and waits. “I...yeah. I think I do. Jules what am I doing? I break everything, I can't do this."

"Seriously? That's your problem here?"

"We just got him back. I can't mess that up now."

"I'm a little confused, do you want me to tell you to go for it or do you want me to talk you into giving up?"

"I don't know."

"Just don't give up on one of the few good things you've got going for you, okay? Let it explode violently like all the rest of the good things in our lives. You deserve that much."

“Okay. If you can get a spell to work, I’ll do it.”

“Ohhhh is that how it is.”

“That’s how it is.”

“It’s on.”

 

* * *

 

Alice shows up the next day. Penny’s been checking in with Kady, and Kady’s hedge witch revolution is Alice’s new cause.

“You morons don’t even know what you freed do you? Luckily it’s keeping the Librarians busy. I’m here to let you know that Kady and I are going to sneak into the Library the next time the Monster appears. We built a spell that should follow the magical pipes back to Blackspire and clear out any foreign objects in the flow, meaning the siphon. I’m going to fix this. We’re going to fix this. And we could use all the help we can get.”

“If you’re fixing magic, I want in,” Margo says from the staircase. “What? Fillory has no more gods, someone’s gotta help it. And the siphon is _seriously_ fucking up the feng shui or whatever keeps Fillory in balance.”

“Julia? Quentin?”

Julia sighs. “I’m going to regret saying this, but if the Library is attacking the Monster, we’re going to have to go stop them. We uh… kind of planted a bomb big enough to blow up the Earth on the Monster, and if the Librarians accidentally set it off that would probably be worse. I can be the distraction.”

“I go where Julia goes,” adds Quentin.

“I can drop you two off wherever the Monster is when we get our tipoff, but you might have to find your own ride back. I told Kady I’d donate blood for the cause.”

They’re going to take the hedges into the library through the mirror world, which Alice remembers enough to successfully navigate, and she’s got a beacon like the one they gave to Zelda.

“The pages we got from our informant say we need to move tonight. So get ready.”

Alice stops Quentin before he can walk out of the room.

“I’m sorry. And you don’t have to forgive me, I just wanted to say it and mean it.”

“Yeah, me too. Do you think there’s any chance it’ll work?”

“Statistically speaking, yes. It’s a small chance, but I think it’s worth taking. To do something good. Actually, I wanted to give you this. We were told to give it to Eliot, that he would understand, but…”

“Thanks. I’ll make sure he gets it. Good luck?”

“You too.”

 

* * *

 

Quentin sets the folded up page on the bedside table next to Eliot, and sits down in Margo’s chair. He’s still there when, finally, Eliot opens his eyes. He smiles softly.

"Hey El. Welcome back."

“Thank you. Fuck. I feel like shit."

Quentin smiles a little bigger and a little more apologetically.

"El, I have to go. The world's about to end. Again. You now how it is."

"Oh. Yeah... just like normal then," Eliot says, but he looks worried. It’s an odd look on Eliot’s face.

"Just like normal."

Q gets up from the chair and kisses Eliot's forehead softly before turning to leave the room.

Eliot’s voice stops him.

“Q?”

"Hm?" Quentin looks back over his shoulder.

Eliot just looks at him for a moment, and Quentin turns around to face him fully. Eliot just shakes his head a little and says, ".... be careful."

Quentin thinks he understands.

"....yeah."

 

* * *

 

Penny drops Julia and Quentin off in a London square.

“This is the spot, just around the corner. Good luck.”

“You too.”

Penny disappears, and they turn the corner together.

 

* * *

 

 

“I thought we agreed that this game is bad. Why are you back?”

Quentin and Julia approach the Monster slowly. They don’t want the Monster to leave before the Librarians show up, because the Librarians still need a distraction, but they can’t leave anything to chance. The Monster’s not wrong, it IS a game.

“We uh, we wanted to check on you.”

“Yeah! You know. Like any good uh, parents, would do.”

“Par...ents? You are not my parents.”

“I mean we kinda are though. We created a body for you. We play with you. We want to make sure you’re safe.”

“This is a strange game.”

“You have no idea,” Julia says under her breath.

“What is really going on?” The monster leans in close to Quentin. Without Eliot’s face, it’s easy to stare him down. “This is no fun, this face doesn’t make you feel anything at all.”

“You need to leave, now,” Julia says, as the Monster reaches for Quentin’s neck. “Hide and seek!”

“Uhm? No. I am the most powerful. Hide and go seek is no fun with you, you are easy to find.”

“Not--not with us.”

“I decided not to kill you but I might change my mind. Maybe _you_ should hide first.”

From the other side of the square, a pair of gray-suited Librarians appears, and then another from another direction. Julia and Quentin start pointing them out.

“Look! You see those people over there? They want to kill you! We’re here trying to save your life.”

“It’s cute that you think that matters.”

Julia tries to weave a barrier, and nothing happens. Quentin mimics her, but all he succeeds at doing is to knock out most of the ambient magic as the spell fails.

“Maybe you were right. This game looks more fun now.”

Quentin and Julia try to fight off the Librarians but there are so many more of them. Julia and Quentin are embarrassingly easily captured, and one of the Librarians douses the Monster with black liquid that looks a lot like it might be stone blood. The Monster howls in pain but gets away, taking out two of the Librarians with a glare.

Unfortunately Julia and Quentin are both wanted criminals, ane the Librarians have no trouble recognizing them, and have them bound up in anti-magical gloves in no time.

“Do you think I could get out of these if I broke one of my thumbs?”

“Don't be an idiot, Q.”

Three things happen simultaneously, and it must catch the Librarians off guard.

First, a flood of ambient magic rushes over them. It's a euphoric feeling that leaves everyone a little imbalanced.

Second, the figure of Eliot Waugh appears in front of them.

“Surprise bitch! Bet you thought you'd seen the last of me.”

The Librarian nearest to Julia shakes her head. “What? You’re not the monster anymore, he changed forms.”

“You’re absolutely right.” Eliot enunciates each word slowly. “I’m not the Monster. I’m the distraction.”

Thirdly, Todd slips behind the Librarians and grabs Julia and Quentin. With access to do much magic, it's easy for him to remove their binds.

“Smoke screen, pub door,” Todd says. “He said you'd understand?”

Quentin casts spells as he runs towards Eliot.

“Which way do we go?” He asks, grabbing Eliot’s hand as fog fills the square.

They run for a block before Quentin feels a tug on his arm from Eliot, stopping him in his tracks. Todd and Julia almost rush right past them.

Eliot collapses into Quentin's arms.

"Woah are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. Really good. I have like ten different magical stimulants in my blood right now. Awesome.”

“Oh...kay let’s get you back home.”

“Todd do you remember which way you came?” Julia asks. “I don't know my way around London.”

They go a little slower, with Quentin supporting Eliot, and Eliot holding onto Quentin's hand for dear life. They make it without getting caught, somehow. Eliot lets Quentin carry him to bed and nods when Q tells him to sleep, but won't let go of Q's hand.

Quentin sits on the edge of the bed and wonders what's supposed to come next. On the bedside table, the paper Alice left for Eliot is sitting open.

It's a rough draft page from a story, hand written. It describes the London square they'd been held in, and how the Librarians had called Irene McAllister. It doesn't say anything about Eliot or Todd.

Quentin puts the page back, and gently disentangles his hand from Eliot's. He's too tired to think about anything anymore, and he already knows what he wants, it's not like it's really a choice.

Quentin takes his shoes off and lays down in the empty space beside Eliot on the bed, and feels safe. He sets a hand lightly on Eliot's chest where he can feel that El is still here, with him, and falls asleep too.

 

* * *

 

 

There’s a few days of confusion. Sleep, healing. Quiet and worry. Eliot runs a fever. He's a little worse for the wear coming down off the stimulants, but he doesn’t die. The hedges successfully jammed the magic flow at the Library’s source; sending a magical seeker back to the siphon to break it. When Margo, Alice, and Kady get back, there’s magic again, but they all look hollow. None of them want to talk about it. Not everything goes the way you want it to.

Julia enlists Alice's help with testing her lack of spellslinging capabilities. They some luck but progress tortuously slowly. Alice says something about re-shaping spells to fit different magical pathways and Julia calls herself a Tesla retrofitted for peanut oil.

Quentin reads books, because there’s nothing else he can do to help, and he pretends like everything is okay. Margo and Eliot talk, and argue, and talk, and cry, and Margo goes back to Fillory alone.

That evening is the first time Quentin and Eliot have really been alone, and awake, and had a moment without being near death or surrounded by everyone else, and it's a little awkward. Q walked into the room they’ve sorta been sharing without thinking, though maybe he should have gone back to his own room instead. He tries to say something, but for once, he’s got no words. He doesn’t know where they’re at, or whether Eliot was just caught up in a series of life or death moments.

He rationalizes it: they’re friends. Eliot would do the same thing for any of them. And it's not like Eliot’s ever been shy about what he wants. If it's really what he wanted, he would have said something. If he’d changed his mind.

So when Eliot gets up and leaves Q standing awkwardly by the door without saying anything, he's not surprised. He walks over to grab his sweater and slumps down onto the floor by the bed. Q stares at the ceiling with his sweater forgotten next to him.

Eliot comes back with a bottle of wine and two glasses.

"I’m just gonna say this,” Eliot says, and sits down in front of Q on the floor. “I don't know how to do things this way.”

He hands Q a glass and studiously focuses on filling their cups.

“But it seems wrong to just go headfirst--pun fully intended--to the sex.”

Eliot doesn't move anything but his eyes, but he looks up at Q. Q has set his glass down on the floor next to him and is staring back at Eliot.

Eliot's shoulders fall, his posture and his confidence melt away. “I don't even know if you want that, after last time, and I never asked--"

Quentin reaches across the space between them and kisses Eliot. He pulls them together and forgets the glass of wine sitting next to him, which spills all over the floor and his sweater. The crash makes him pull back to look at the mess he’s made. Eliot waves a hand with a gesture to clean it up without even taking his eyes off Q. Easy as pie, Quentin realizes, and the thought sinks in: because there’s magic everywhere, again.

Quentin looks back at Eliot instead of the unbroken glass full of wine and opens his mouth. Closes it. Finally picks up the thread of conversation from earlier again.

“No, actually the sex was pretty great...that's. Not an issue. At all." Quentin sets a hand on Eliot's knee, because it's there, because it feels nice to have a point of physical connection.

“Q I’m sorry, I was an idiot. I knew what you were asking, and that you meant it, and I pushed you away. I was scared, and I love you.”

Quentin wants to reach up and dry Eliot's tears, but he waits.

“Shit,” Eliot continues, finally. Eloquently. “I’m in love with you and that scares the hell out of me.”

Q laughs nervously. “I...I kind of uhm. Resurrected a monster just to get you back. So I think we might be even.” If Eliot wants to talk about this though, he's got things he wants to say too. “It’s not just some emotional high. El, it’s not that I _can’t_ imagine living my life without you, because honestly I’ve had to think about that a lot lately. But I don’t want to.”

“So you still want...to try.”

“Yes? You seem worried. This is the one thing I'm pretty sure I know will work.”

“What if I don’t live up to those memories. Q, those were us but they were different-us. What if I fuck up?”

Q gets up and brushes his pants off, grabs the mostly full bottle of wine and the glasses and sets them on the dresser, and holds out a hand to Eliot.

“When do we ever _not_ fuck up. El I don’t love you because you’re perfect, I love you because you and I together make sense. We work. I want that. If you do.”

Eliot stares at Quentin’s had for a minute before taking it and getting up, standing (almost) face to face. Looking into each other eyes.

“That was almost really cool, Coldwater.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. I might fall in love all over again.”

“Wow.”

Eliot pushes Q gently on the shoulder until the back of his knees hit the edge of the bed. Quentin folds, and gets a lap full of Eliot.

“Is that enough talking? That was a lot of talking.”

“Mmm,” Quentin says into Eliot's mouth, and leans into Eliot to keep from tipping them over the rest of the way onto the mattress. He fails, but it's a valiant effort.

“Oh wait, how are your injuries--”

Eliot smiles at him, eyes crinkling

“I've never been better.”

 

* * *

 

 

Tracking the monster is hard, especially because he can teleport. But the magic they'd imbued Julia's seed with is still there. She can still feel it--maybe that's why the monster killed the others.

Eliot likes to nap on Quentin while he reads, researching. Eliot's recovery is steady, but he's pretty unenergetic. Quentin doesn't get much sleep.

Sometimes, when Eliot is quiet, when he's not performing _Eliot_ , when he's not wearing vests and ties, hair product and make-up, Quentin gets a hesitant look on his face for just a second. Eliot has a lifetime’s worth of experience telling him that something is wrong, something is hurting Q more than just the normal Q things, and he's gonna figure out what it is and destroy it.

When Quentin finally crashes, he sleeps for a long time. Eliot wakes first but stays still, watching. Thinking.

Quentin opens his eyes when the sun reaches his face, and for just a second, there's the scared look on his face.

“Hey Q,” Eliot says, softly as he can. The research Q has been doing clicks into place. He's trying to destroy the Monster because it's still there in Q's head. It’s right there, still, every time he looks at Eliot.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“What?”

“The thing that was walking around wearing my face.”

Quentin frowns. “It's fine, I'll get over it.”

Eliot keeps his voice calm, steady. Not how he feels. “By not sleeping? Becoming obsessed with killing a god? Q you don't have to keep this to yourself.”

“Julia's helping.” Q rolls over onto his back, and looks at the ceiling.

“You don't have to keep it from me.”

“You just--” Q stops. He turns back to face Eliot. Starts over, “You almost died. You shot the monster to save me and you almost died because of it.”

“All right. But I'm here.” Eliot reaches across the three-inch space that separates them to draw a line down Quentin’s breastbone with his forefinger. “And so are you. And the monster in the bedroom has to go, I don't want it here.”

Eliot shoves the bed covers over and drags his lanky naked body out of bed

“El, wait--”

Eliot stops, standing at the foot of the bed, and faces Q. Q’s sitting up now, hugging a giant pile of blankets.

“No. Fuck this. Okay so the monster wore tacky t-shirts right? That's easy. I would never. I refuse to wear eyeliner to bed, it would get all smeared and nobody wants that...but I can do this.”

Eliot turns around so that he's not facing Q. This has to be done right, and a little drama can disguise a lot of cowardice. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.

With a dramatic flourish, Eliot's hair falls in clumps around his feet. With a shake of his head and another gesture he tidies away the mess he's made.

Eliot turns around slowly, trying hard not to think about the rash decision he's made for once, and it takes him a while to make eye contact with Quentin.

Q’s eyes walk down and up Eliot’s body, resting on his short hair. Eliot watches Q for a lifeline, for anything, but he's just sitting there, with his mouth slightly ajar.

"Well?” Eliot finally asks, “Is it okay?"

Q is at a loss for words.

Q is never at a loss for words.

“If it looks bad i'm going to need a more powerful spell to fix it, I didn't really think this through, and I'm not sure I've ever seen you this quiet for this long."

"No.” Quentin sets his bundle of blankets aside and scooches down far enough to sit on the end of the bed.

“No? No what?”

“No, it's not bad. It's...really hot."

" _Really_?"

"Eliot, I can't--” Quentin rubs a hand over his face. “You're so amazing."

"I mean, obviously, but are you feeling okay? Because I’m pretty sure I'm not that--"

Q reaches out and pulls Eliot in by wrapping his arms around Eliot's middle. His nose is cold. He buries his head in Eliot's solar plexus anyway.

"Thank you," he mumbles in the general direction of Eliot's belly button.

"For destroying my hair? Yeah, no problem." Eliot runs his fingers through Q's hair, very gently separating out his bedhead tangles.

"For being you." He looks up at Eliot. “You didn’t have to do that, though. You know, I can tell the difference, I know you’re not…. Him. You don’t have to worry.”

Eliot purses his lips, sighs, and sits down next to Q. He makes sure Q is looking at him before he says, “I know. I trust you. I’m not worried that you’re confusing me with anyone else, not even someone with my incredibly gorgeous face.”

Q rolls his eyes, and Eliot waits, patiently. He reaches up and tucks a loose strand of hair behind Q’s ear.

“Q, I don’t want to remind you of someone who hurt you. I can’t fix anything, I can’t promise that we’ll be happy. But I can pull off ruggedly handsome if it makes it a little easier.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you [scorn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cornelius/pseuds/cornelius) for beta reading!


End file.
